NYC08LA254 · Schweizer 269C-1
Aerial Resources Schweizer 269C-1 · Accident: loss of tail rotor effectiveness while maneuvering
From Hummel Field (W75) to Hummel Field (W75)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC08LA254
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Schweizer 269C-1
- Aircraft type
- Schweizer 269
- Category
- Helicopter
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N61425
- Operator
- Aerial Resources
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hummel Field (W75), Saluda, VATo Hummel Field (W75), Saluda, VA
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Maneuvering · hover
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of tail rotor effectiveness
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The helicopter was full of fuel and hovering 100 feet above ground level when it encountered "a pretty good headwind" that registered 20 knots on the airspeed indicator. The helicopter shuddered, the nose yawed to the right, and the pilot's application of the left anti-torque pedal "had no effect" as the helicopter began to rotate around the main rotor mast. The pilot initially increased collective pitch to climb up and away from the trees. The pilot then applied forward cyclic, which lowered the nose of the helicopter and increased forward airspeed. This slowed the rate of rotation during the descent, but upon ground contact the landing skid "caught" and the helicopter rolled onto its side. Examination of global positioning system (GPS) track data extracted from the GPS unit on board the helicopter revealed an "S" shaped track that eventually oriented the helicopter into a quartering-tailwind condition above the crash site. The pilot was asked how long the helicopter was in the 100-foot hover before he "ran out of left pedal," and the left pedal input lost effectiveness. He replied, that "I didn't run out of pedal, I just didn't have any left or right." Examination of the wreckage revealed no preimpact mechanical deficiencies. According to Federal Aviation Administration Advisory Circular (AC) 90-95, "When maneuvering between hover and 30 knots: (1) Avoid tailwinds. If loss of translational lift occurs, it will result in an increased high power demand and an additional anti-torque requirement. (2) Avoid out of ground effect (OGE) hover and high power demand situations, such as low-speed downwind turns. (3) Be especially aware of wind direction and velocity when hovering in winds of about 8-12 knots (especially OGE). There are no strong indicators to the pilot of a reduction of translation lift... (6) Stay vigilant to power and wind conditions."
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate remedial action after an inadvertent encounter with loss of tail rotor effectiveness.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC08LA254
- Event ID
- 20080807X01175
- Case number
- NYC08LA254
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7b0b482dbf320d50e5158b9ece5b40afcd4b72ba31307a647840ae4f4f75a08d; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:00:12.398Z.